Tag: Alaska Airlines

Alaska is already matching Virgin America status

December 21, 2016 / / 1 Comment

As you all know, the Alaska Airlines / Virgin America merger was finally approved recently. Alaska is taking more steps to merge the two airlines, and part of that process is a merger of the two frequent flier programs.

Many people got the following email stating that their Virgin America Elevate accounts and Mileage Plan accounts would be merged on January 9.

Dear Michael,

We have some exciting news about Virgin America’s integration with Alaska Airlines. Starting today, Elevate members can now earn points when flying on Alaska Airlines. Continue reading →

Enter to win a roundtrip flight from Alaska Airlines with Uber for Pride Week

June 21, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I’m sure if you have an Uber account you’ve seen this promo already, but you can enter to win a free roundtrip flight anywhere Alaska Airlines flies with a sweepstakes from Uber. All you have to do is live in certain West Coast cities + Honolulu, enter the appropriate promo code, and take rides on Uber during the sweepstakes period, which aligns with Pride Week in the various cities.

The sweepstakes periods and promo codes are (Los Angeles and Portland are already over, but San Francisco is on right now!) Continue reading →

How I Hacked My Trip to Europe

May 6, 2016 / / 1 Comment

It occurred to me as I was writing some blog posts that as much as I talk about various individual hacks, I’ve never actually detailed a real set of redemptions I made, how I constructed a trip, and the final costs. I think it’s because they aren’t the most fun to write (because usually they’re not all that novel), but they can actually be pretty fun to read because they demonstrate what’s really possible with travel hacking. Continue reading →

The Case Against Mileage Running

February 18, 2016 / / 4 Comments

Now that I’m 24 hours removed from my mileage run to Dallas and have no further runs on the books, I figured it would be a reasonable time to reflect on my decision to do the runs in the first place, add some context where I omitted it, and decide if it makes sense to do again in the future.

For some context, see my post on The Case for Mileage Running, in which I outlined my initial rationale for spending three nights on a plane for no purpose other than to get on a plane in the opposite direction two hours later. For those new to travel hacking, also see here for a description of the difference between redeemable miles and elite qualifying miles. Continue reading →

The Case for Mileage Running

February 16, 2016 / / 5 Comments

Hello from the Centurion Lounge at San Francisco International Airport, which has been my temporary home for three of the past four Tuesday nights before a series of mileage runs to Dallas!

Yep, you read that correctly (although despite the fancy shoes, mileage running has nothing to do with actual running).

I write a lot about how I approach travel hacking, which is largely based on evaluating the (opportunity) costs of taking advantage of a particular hack and comparing it to the rewards I reap from it. So it may come as a surprise to hear that I have (not once, not twice, but thrice) opted to pay money to take an overnight flight to Dallas only to turn right around once I get there and arrive in San Francisco before it’s time to head into work. Continue reading →

Orbitz Makes My Head Spin

January 9, 2016 / / 8 Comments

I’m about as close to an Orbitz fanboy as you can find on the internet. I even signed up for the Orbitz rewards credit card, and I continue to book with them even after they eviscerated their best price guarantee program. That’s why I was supremely annoyed to find this in my inbox as I was sitting down to enjoy a burger at my friend Grant’s ‘meat’-up this afternoon:

For context, AA has been running some $100.60 round trip fares to Dallas from San Francisco. After all the rewards I can get, it ends up costing me about $93 for each round trip, so I decided to book two back-to-back for next week to start padding my Alaska mileage account and re-qualify for elite status for 2017. Continue reading →

Status makes your points worth less

October 10, 2015 / / 6 Comments

As many followers of Miles Per Day will know, Virgin America is offering a promotion where transferring 80,000 Membership Rewards points to the Virgin America (VX) Elevate program will grant you VX Gold status until February of 2017. For frequent VX flyers, this could be a great deal because it offers free Main Cabin Select upgrades (typically $50 a pop) and increased earnings on cash fares. Continue reading →

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